Is this like a city shelter, or some more structured sort of rescue? I know that the rescue groups in my area are overly picky about homes, but our animal control shelter barely cares if you have a pulse. They have an 18 year age requirement to adopt, and as a very young looking barely 18 year old they didn't even ask for any id when I adopted Jason. Just pick out your cat, fill out a form, pay your money. Come back in a couple of weeks once he's been neutered, come visit him if you'd like. I was kind of surprised, but there's such a pet overpopulation in the area that they just want them to have the best chance of not being euthanized on the spot.
If I ever adopt a cat from a shelter, I would wan to take it home right then. Those shelters should make sure they were spayed /neutered way before u come to look at an animal. That should be the first thing they do.Is this like a city shelter, or some more structured sort of rescue? I know that the rescue groups in my area are overly picky about homes, but our animal control shelter barely cares if you have a pulse. They have an 18 year age requirement to adopt, and as a very young looking barely 18 year old they didn't even ask for any id when I adopted Jason. Just pick out your cat, fill out a form, pay your money. Come back in a couple of weeks once he's been neutered, come visit him if you'd like. I was kind of surprised, but there's such a pet overpopulation in the area that they just want them to have the best chance of not being euthanized on the spot.
Before I got him I went all across town looking for some sort of "free to a good home" type deal. Called ads in the paper and vets offices, no one had any kittens. It seemed that once I decided that our family needed a new cat, the homeless kitten population in my city took a sharp and sudden decline. All of the rescues in the area have a strict 21+ age policy and my parents, while they love cats, did not want to be a part of the actual adoption process so I had to do it alone. Once I found out that the shelter did not I went and picked him out that day. The next week I had people asking me if I was still looking for a kitten...
If I were in the cat/kitten acquiring mode I would probably give it a few weeks, check out signs posted at clinics, and see if something came up. If nothing looked interesting I would not hesitate to go back to the shelter. The $70 that I paid for Jason covered his first set of shots, neutering, microchipping, a rabies voucher, a health guarantee, and a bag of goodies. Stella has cost much more than that thus far. While on one hand I do not want to support or encourage people to allow their pets to breed irresponsibly, I do understand that the animals need homes once produced. I also became more sympathetic to the folks posting free animal signs once I was trying to find a home for a kitten that I found and did not irresponsibly bring into this world.
He was only 8 weeks old when I went there. Too young to go home yet from my point of view, and I have no idea when the kittens got there. They would have let him go home sooner, but the animal control vet was out of town. I do agree that animals should be ready to go, but given the fact that there were no other adoptable kittens it makes sense. If they didn't put them out when they did, it is possible that a potential adopter would come in and there would be none. Worst happens, someone decides they aren't interested when they can't come home immediately. The shelter up where I currently am will give you a voucher to get your pet spayed at the local clinic, but the shelter will absolutely not under any circumstances let any animal leave for its new home without being fixed. I would have liked to pick him up earlier, but he got to spend more time with his siblings (I don't think there was any mother still around) this way.
High-kill shelters can't afford to spay/neuter an animal before it's adopted, as they may have to kill it for space and then they would have wasted the surgery.
It's a sad process. I still sometimes wonder what happened to his siblings at the shelter, whether or not they were adopted or killed. From a logistical perspective it makes sense not to waste resources on an animal that won't live through the week. That's why I like the way the shelter does it up here, but I don't know if they actually follow up to make sure the animals get fixed. If it's done before you take your pet home, then they know that it's been done.
